Notes from Israel - Day 5 - 2016 5 14 Saturday – Bethlehem/Hebron

Beit Omar

This name was on our original schedule, but I do not recall having it pointed out or stopping there en route to Hebron this morning. It is a Palestinian town of about 17,000 just northwest of Hebron. According to Wikipedia, it is notable as the home of Jonah's father and has a shrine housing the apparent tomb of Jonah.

It was sunny and promising to be warm when we set out for Hebron. This meant going through a major towered checkpoint as we exited Bethlehem to the west and several lesser stops along the way.

Tomb of the Patriarchs Mosque [and Synagogue]

Hebron, of course, figures prominently in the 3 major religions of the area as the home of the patriarchs. It is where the Bible records that Abraham purchased the cave of Macpelah in which to bury his first wife Sarah. Thus, it is an ancestral site for the Jews, as their biological lineage stems from her through Isaac and Jacob, and for the Muslims, some of whom who trace their lineage to Abraham’s first son, Ishmael. Jacob’s brother Esau might also be the ancestor of Arabs in this area. For Christians, our claim to Abraham is that he is the prime example of righteousness being imputed to him simply by faith, based on God’s merciful offer of grace and salvation as a gift. We, as sinful humans are incapable of earning our way into the state of a right relationship with God – the real meaning of righteousness. Righteousness was thus not earned by obeying the [Mosaic/Jewish] law, which came after in any case, nor by being circumcised, which also came later, or by doing certain works.

The city had thus been home to a number of Jews even before 1948. There had been clashes between the Jews and Muslims at times, which the Jews like to highlight, as we saw on a series of painted panels on buildings on one of the main old streets that we later walked. In recent times, Hebron has gained notoriety because Israeli settlers moved right into the city and have taken up residence in a number of upper level apartments. They actually began to throw their garbage down on the streets below, which made the Palestinians walking by or selling from stalls on the street have to put up screens and tarpaulins above their head for protection!

The Muslims had built a mosque over the supposed hillside site of the Cave of Macpelah. It houses shrines to all the key ancestral figures including the wives of the patriarchs. We parked our bus at the end of a street at the top of the hill and walked down to the mosque. Just before the mosque is a large rather fancy old single storey brick/stone building housing bathrooms for necessary use and perhaps also for more traditional-minded Muslims to wash to purify themselves before entering the mosque.

The Jewish settlers at one point commandeered part of the building and turned it into a synagogue from which Jewish flags hang predominantly. This is often the sign of a Jewish neighborhood within formerly Palestinian territory – the presence of the star of David in flags marking the area. This followed the 1994 violent entry of a Jewish physician into the mosque during Ramadan and his killing 33 worshipping Muslims. Apparently some 400 settlers rapidly moved into the area and now number some 1500 in the neighbourhood.

Since this naturally caused the Palestinians to be upset and led to further conflict, the Israelis have set up a large command post/checkpoint security entrance in front of the mosque/synagogue. There was also a manned control/observation tower perched above a wall alongside the entrance to the mosque.  Evidently Muslims can get into the mosque from this side without needing to go through the checkpoint, as we were able to get expedited entrance on that side and explicitly told not to go through the checkpoint booths.

Inside the typically ornately decorated mosque are a number of vaults that supposedly house the remains of the patriarchs Abraham, Jacob and Isaac, including their wives Sarah, Rebekah and Leah [Rachel’s tomb is near Jerusalem]. Since the division of the building, a few of the sites are off-limits to the Muslims and those not going through the synagogue site, such as the tomb of Joseph.

Shopping Street – old and current

Partly because of the need for Jewish settlers then to move safely through the streets of Hebron to the synagogue, not to mention those coming down the hill from the adjacent settlement of Kiryat Arba, there has been established a permanent military presence of checkpoints and control towers along the major street leading to the synagogue. This had been a major thriving Palestinian shopping area. Gradually, the ongoing conflict with and harassment of settlers and soldiers along the street has caused the whole thoroughfare to be pretty much abandoned. As one walks along one just sees locked doors and gates. The settlers had painted anti-Palestinian graffiti on the doors but this has been mostly painted over. In some areas, more so farther west of the synagogue, there are still Palestinian families living above street level, but they are for the most part, essentially imprisoned in their apartments. We saw some inhabitants, especially children, looking out forlornly through their metal screened windows. One shop owner directly across from the mosque/synagogue stubbornly refuses to leave and continues to endure harassment for still being there.

As we walked down this street we saw/met numerous individuals and groups of Jewish settlers - it was the Sabbath and they were in their Sabbath best, walking to and from the synagogue and area too their homes. Many were armed. All were dressed in orthodox fashion. Considering the history of this street, I was surprised to see even young girls walking alone. Some of us engaged the soldiers and settlers in conversation. It was always interesting to note the significant proportion of female soldiers as well as of African origin. One student was willing to talk with us at length and tried to defend the Israeli position. He said he himself was from Iraq, therefore  knew Arabic too. He talked of having to make the sacrifice of putting his education on hold to do his army duty but believing it necessary to defend his nation form the Palestinians. It was obvious he had basically swallowed the state propaganda that all Palestinians are potential terrorists out to attack Israel and Jewish citizens and need to be guarded against, that the military approach is necessary.

Farther on, the Israelis have place signs saying this area was voluntarily vacated by the Palestinians due to the clashes but they are doing just fine on a nearby market street. The wording suggests that area was there all along, which may be the case, but it is certainly an area that has had to at least partly replace the former. We did take a walk through this typical Middle-Eastern market area, full of stalls selling everything from produce to souvenirs. It was quite hot by the time we went through this street [after the visit to the home described below] and many of us were in no mood for the hawking and could easily have done without this trek but our guides knew that the economy in Hebron is poor and the sellers badly wanted our business. Even children bothered us, some for donations but more trying to sell things as simple as pencils and pro-Palestinian arm bracelets. They even came to our bus trying to sell these things and one man in particular was quite insistent trying to sell shoulder bags. One of our guides bought some items from the desperate children and tried himself to sell them to us from the front of the bus before we drove off to cut down some of the pestering.